Opera Moves Ahead Under New CEO

Opera Software is moving forward under CEO Lars Boilesen and delivering a new devices browser and new SDKs, or software development kits.

Opera Software is moving forward with a new CEO
and is delivering several advances under its new leadership, including a new
devices browser and new software development kits.
On Jan. 5, Opera announced that longtime CEO
Jon von Tetzchner was stepping down from his CEO
position to be succeeded by Lars Boilesen. However, von Tetzchner, who
co-founded the company in 1995 and had served as CEO
since that time, will continue to serve Opera full-time in a strategic and
independent capacity.

According to an Opera spokesperson, "Jon von Tetzchner's title will be
co-founder and he will focus on Opera's vision, strategy [and] customers as
well as being well represented in the press and at conferences."

In a statement regarding his move, von Tetzchner said, "Lars Boilesen
brings both a very significant industry experience and a deep understanding of
Opera to the role as the company's chief executive officer. In short, Opera's
spirit runs through his veins. My decision to assume a new role in Opera is
based on a lengthy consideration process. As outgoing chief executive, I leave
confident in the company's continued leadership in key markets, our strong
management team, our ongoing commitment to innovation and our robust financial
foundation."
Among the first products released under Boilesen, at the Consumer
Electronics Show in Las Vegas, will
be a stand-alone browser, Opera Devices 10 for Windows CE (beta). Opera will
also unveil two new SDKs at the show, the Opera Devices 10.15 SDK for Linux and
WinCE (Windows CE) platforms, and Opera Devices 10 for WinCE.
Opera is keeping its devices browser "in line with the company's
browsers for desktop computers and mobile phones, ensuring that the latest
developments in Web technology are ready to be deployed on TVs, set-top boxes,
portable media players, Internet tablets, mobile Internet devices and even car
dashboards," the company said in a Jan. 6 news release.
Opera Devices 10 for WinCE is "based on the same user interface (UI)
recently released for Opera Mobile and Opera Mini," the company said.
"Opera Devices SDKs are built with freedom and flexibility at their
core, giving customers the ability to build a full Web browser, a widget or an
application platform on any connected device, including TVs, set-top boxes
(STBs), media players, mobile Internet devices and many more," Christen
Krogh, chief development officer at Opera, said in a statement. "The TV
industry's evolution and innovation has created a demand for tool kits that can
handle next-generation IPTV and hybrid broadcast/broadband services on any TV
screen. Opera Devices SDK for Linux is just the comprehensive client to help
customers harness the power of Web technology."
The company said:

"Opera Devices 10.15 SDKs for
Linux and WinCE give ... [developers] from different device ecosystems the
freedom and flexibility to build a full Web browser and/or create a modular
platform dedicated to Web-based content, services or widgets. Opera SDK
features include:
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Opera Turbo - Boost browsing speeds with Opera Turbo, Opera's
server-side compression technology that is at its best when bandwidth is
limited and networks are congested.
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Flash Lite 3.1 - Use the Flash Lite 3.1 plug-in, available as an add-on
service.
??Ã
HTML5/CSS3 - HTML5 takes offline access to your Web
favorites to a new level. Thanks to a local database, Web pages can now cache
content and become accessible offline. Also, with CSS transforms, more dramatic animation of
elements on a Web page are now possible, including transitions, scaling,
rotation and skewing.
??Ã
Widgets - Use Opera Widgets engine and APIs to transform a device into a
complete platform for W3C-compliant widgets."

Moreover, although "both Opera Devices SDKs bring the full power of Web
technology to the device screen, Opera's Linux SDK boasts a few additional compelling
features" such as hardware acceleration "to boost page rendering ... DirectFB
[support] for tighter integration with hardware platforms" and support for
Opera Widgets for TV. Also, "Opera's Open IPTV Framework allows for the
development of HBBTV [Hybrid Broadband Broadcast TV] and OIPF [Open IPTV Forum]
clients, compliant with next-generation IPTV or hybrid broadcast/broadband
services," the company said.
Back to Opera's new CEO: Boilesen has "more
than 20 years of international management and sales/marketing experience from
companies such as Alcatel-Lucent, Tandberg Data, Lego and Opera Software.
Boilesen previously worked for Opera from 2000 to 2005 as executive vice
president [of] sales. ... Prior to re-joining Opera in January 2009 as chief commercial
officer, Boilesen served on Opera Software's Board of Directors as vice
chairman," the company said in its Jan. 5 news release.
"I was very happy about convincing Lars to come back to Opera one year
ago," von Tetzchner said in a statement. "I am very excited about
asking him to take over as CEO as we
continue our growth and global expansion. We have worked closely together for
many years and I am certain that he is the right person to lead Opera into a
very bright future."
And Boilesen provided a statement of his own, saying, "I am impressed
with what Opera has achieved under Jon's leadership. We provide browser
technology not only to nearly 100 million consumers worldwide, but also to the
major players in the industry: Vodafone, T-Mobile, Nintendo, KDDI, SKT,
Nokia, Samsung, Toshiba and Sony Ericsson, to name but a few. Our focus going
forward is to execute on our current strategy and continue to deliver the best
browser experience to the breadth of our customer and user base."

Darryl K. Taft covers the development tools and developer-related issues beat from his office in Baltimore. He has more than 10 years of experience in the business and is always looking for the next scoop. Taft is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and was named 'one of the most active middleware reporters in the world' by The Middleware Co. He also has his own card in the 'Who's Who in Enterprise Java' deck.